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Story: Taxes

No plums

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No plums

This cover of Truth from March 1924 shows Prime Minister William Massey keeping the plums of ‘reduced taxation’ for the fat farmers. In 1923 Massey exempted farmers from income tax as they paid land tax. The preferential treatment of some sectors in the economy was a feature of the tax system until the tax reforms of the mid-1980s.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: H-705-002

by John Henry Gilmour

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Paul Goldsmith, Taxes – War, depression and increased taxes – 1914 to 1935, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/cartoon/21536/no-plums (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Paul Goldsmith, published 27 October 2009, updated 2 September 2016.